And the most influential film of all time is…

By Alex Wiggan

The most influential film of all time has been revealed.

According to The Independent, The Wizard of Oz (1939) is the most influential movie of all time, based on a study of 47,000 films.

The study was conducted at the University of Turin and used algorithms to compare how many times each of the 47,000 films was referenced by other movies. The more references, the more influential the movie was deemed to be and The Wizard of Oz took the top spot.

Lead researcher Dr Livio Bioglio said: “We propose an alternative method to box office takings, which are affected by factors beyond the quality of the film such as advertising and distribution, and reviews, which are ultimately subjective, for analysing the success of a film.

“We have developed an algorithm that uses references between movies as a measure for success.”

So, if The Wizard of Oz is the most influential, where did Star Wars (1977) rank?

According to the study, Star Wars was deemed the second most influential movie, with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) coming third.